Opinion
Civil Action 18-4373
12-08-2021
KIERRA THOMAS, ET AL. v. RANDALL CHAMBERS, ET AL.
ORDER
SARAH S. VANCE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
On April 23, 2019, plaintiffs Kierra Thomas, Antoine Clark, and Shirley Harris filed a motion to set expert fees owed to defendants' life-care planning expert, Stanford McNabb. On April 24, 2019, the Court referred plaintiffs' motion to Magistrate Judge Karen Wells Roby.
R. Doc. 179.
R. Doc. 182.
On October 12, 2021, Magistrate Judge Roby issued a Report and Recommendation (“R&R”) on the motion, recommending that plaintiffs' counsel pay McNabb a travel expense of $155.61 for roundtrip mileage from Lafayette, Louisiana, to New Orleans, and a rate of $300.00 per hour for two hours of travel time. Magistrate Judge Roby further recommended that defense counsel who designated the location of the deposition should bear the remaining $600.00 expense. Magistrate Judge Roby also recommended that McNabb's deposition rate be set at $600.00 per hour, and that plaintiffs' counsel pay him that rate, prorated in quarter-hour increments for any testimony beyond one hour, as reflected by the stop time indicated in the deposition transcript.
R. Doc. 227 at 16.
Id. at 16-17.
Id. at 17.
No party objected to the R&R. Therefore, the Court reviews the R&R for clear error. Douglass v. United Servs. Auto. Ass'n, 79 F.3d 1415, 1430 (5th Cir. 1996); see also Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b) advisory committee's note (1983) (“When no timely objection is filed, the court need only satisfy itself that there is no clear error on the face of the record in order to accept the recommendation.”). The Court finds no clear error. Therefore, the Court adopts Magistrate Judge Roby's R&R as its opinion.
Accordingly, the Court ORDERS that plaintiffs' counsel pay McNabb a travel expense of $155.61 for roundtrip mileage from Lafayette to New Orleans, and a rate of $300.00 per hour for two hours of travel time. The Court FURTHER ORDERS that defense counsel shall bear the remaining $600.00 expense. The Court FURTHER ORDERS that McNabb's deposition rate is $600.00 per hour, and that plaintiffs' counsel shall pay McNabb that rate, prorated in quarter-hour increments for any testimony beyond one hour, as reflected by the stop time indicated in the deposition transcript.
Id. at 16-17.